IANA AND COREY HAD SET THE TONE WITH THEIR CAMPING story, and by the time dessert was over, each person at the table had become the subject of an amusing and sometimes revealing anecdote, including Spencer Addison. And somewhere, midway through the meal, Cole began to be treated as a welcome audience, rather than a mistrusted intruder.

The last tale concerned Rose Britton's irate response to a fan on Oprah Winfrey's show who gushed about how much she'd like to be married to Henry. At the end of the good-natured laughter that followed the recounting, Mary Foster looked at Cole with a smile. "I'm afraid you're discovering all our dark family secrets," she told him.

"They're safe with me," Cole assured her with an answering smile, but privately he found a certain grim amusement in the comparison of this family's "dark secrets" to those of his own. Nevertheless, he was grateful and surprised that the meal had gone off so smoothly, that no more prying questions were directed at him, and that everyone seemed to have accepted him for the time being as a new family friend.

Everyone except Addison.

Addison wasn't neutral. Every instinct Cole possessed warned him that Addison was solidly opposed to Diana's marriage. Not that he made it obvious. Addison was much too well-bred to disturb his wife's family with any sort of unpleasant coldness at their table. In Cole's experience, men like Addison invariably sided with their own kind, no matter how stupid or shortsighted or evil their socially prominent friends might be. By virtue of birth and upbringing, Addison was already a natural foe of Cole's in any situation that pitted Cole against another member of "the privileged class," and Cole knew it. He understood it. In business, Cole always made it a practice to force adversaries like Addison out into the open, where they couldn't hide their feelings and intentions beneath the nearly impenetrable layers of social custom and ritual. Cole did that because it made them feel awkward, exposed, and uncomfortable, which made any contest of wits more equal.

In this case, Cole saw no reason to force Addison from his position of passive opposition into one of open enmity. Diana had already married him, and for some reason, Cole knew she would not back out of the agreement she'd made with him.

He trusted her, Cole realized, as he watched her talking to Corey.

He trusted her, and this realization was profoundly disturbing. And then he pictured her trooping through the woods after Corey with an emergency kit and a bandaged ankle, and his alarm turned to mirth.

Despite the harmony and gaiety during dinner, the farewells in the foyer were understandably awkward.

Normally newlyweds left the bride's home under a shower of rice, with family and friends shouting good wishes. Since that was inappropriate, Diana's family tried to improvise, and to Cole, the results were as endearing as the family itself.

Diana's mother held out her hand to her new son-in-law, hesitated, and then blurted uneasily, "It was very nice to meet you after all these years, Cole. Will we see you again?"

"I'm sure you will."

Grandpa shook his hand. "Welcome to the—You're welcome here anytime."

"Thank you."

Spencer Addison did not pretend this was a meaningful occasion, but he seemed more amused than hostile. "I never knew Diana hated dirt and snakes. What did you do about the big blacksnake that lived in the Haywards' stable?"

Anxious for the opportunity to show Spence how kind Cole had been, even then, Diana answered before Cole could. "Cole trained him to stay away when I was there so I wouldn't be afraid."

"Really?" Spence said to Cole, his brows raised in amused challenge as he reached out to shake Cole's hand "How did you manage that?"

"I brought in a Rocky Mountain black ocelot to drive him up into the rafters," Cole replied drolly.

"You lied to me?" Diana demanded, laughing.

Corey gave Cole a hug.

Grandma gave him a dozen cookies and a loaf of freshly baked bread.